Sunday, July 22, 2007

One of the many contacts that went unanswered from Dell

Here is a transcript after I finally found a person's e-mail address from Dell computers. She never responded to my reply. I will post more of my conversations soon. Heck, since it took so much time for me to find contact people/numbers/e-mail addresses I may just post those as well!

Mr. ******,
Thank you for contacting Dell Inc. I certainly apologize for any inconveniences that this issue has caused. I would like the opportunity to review your account to assist you with your technical issues you are currently having. However in your e-mail you did not provide your account information. If you could provide me your customer number, order number and or service tag number, I will be happy to review your issues and to contact you about them.
Thank you Barbara ******

Dear Barbara,

Thank you so much for your e-mail. My customer number is *******.

Let me start by saying I have been in touch with several people since my e-mail to you and I still feel as though this issue is unresolved. I will get to the bottom line at this point because I have argued and talked this issue to death with so many people. M

My computer was purchased in 2004. I have been informed by several people at Dell that it is old. Well, that in and of it self is insulting. I have shoes older than that! Do your products have a shelf life of less than 3 years? I understand technology moves and changes quickly but the actual computer should last longer don’t you think? Also, I did not purchase the warranty. This is a fact that has been pointed out to me so many times it has become comical. The reason it is funny is that I am actually, thanks to the Dell credit card, still paying for the stupid computer.

From the various conversations I have been able to determine that it is my Ethernet card that has stopped working. This of course is attached to the motherboard. I have been told a replacement is $400. I can go on E-bay (go ahead, check it out for yourself) and get a Dell for about $150.

Why in the world would I ever pay $400 for a mother board? I really think, given the fact that we have purchased 2 desktops and 2 laptops from you folks, an offer of a replacement computer is in order. I do not need the monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc. I need the tower that includes the motherboard and operating system. I really think hiding behind a warranty (another way to get more money out of me) as opposed to standing beside the quality of your product is sad. I have lost countless hours trouble shooting as well as, under the direction of your tech support, lost all documents, photos, and purchased music files. The loss to me has been so great that telling me the only resolution at this point is for me to spend more money should be the furthest things from anyone’s mind.

I appreciate your taking the time to look into my situation. I think your company’s writing off of 1 system to make a long time and until very recently, loyal and satisfied customer happy is the most customer-centric way to go. I also believe the thought of my future technological purchases and the income they will generate is reason enough. You sell these systems as very affordable prices. You could only do that if they are available to you at very affordable prices so I am sure the cost is minimal when looking at the big picture. I mean, if the darn thing did not die until I at least paid it off, is that too much to ask?

3 comments:

Dell Customer Advocate said...

Wen-Dell,

I am a customer advocate here at Dell headquarters in Texas. I am not sure what happened, but I would like to apologize for the fact you did not get a reply to your email. While I have not been able to look over the notes in our system (I don't have the information you provided to Barbara) I have read what you posted here.

From what you state, you purchased the computer with the default one year warranty. Other warranty options are available (2 or 3 years, and possibly 4 or 5 years, depending on the system) during purchase to ensure our customers are able to select the warranty option that best fits their needs.

While I can certainly understand your frustration at having to pay for repairs to the system, the fact of the matter is that once the warranty period has ended that is the only option for getting things fixed. While this is probably not the answer you were hoping to hear, it's not quite as bad as you may imagine.

From what you describe, you have a desktop computer. This means that, assuming the integrated network interface card (NIC) is the only problem with the computer, you could purchase and install a PCI network card to fix things. While this does not fix the problem with the integrated NIC, it is an inexpensive solution that is easy to implement.

If you have questions on how to install a PCI card you can read the user or service manual (available on the Dell support website: http://support.dell.com) or I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about it. If you have any other questions I will be more than happy to answer them as well.

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

Dell Customer Advocate said...

It seems looking back at my post that I forgot to include my contact information. If you need to, you can reach me at customer_advocate@dell.com (with 'ATTN: Larry (NIC)' in the subject to ensure it gets to me).

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

Anonymous said...

People should read this.